Friday, October 29, 2010

It was a happy day here yesterday as our food mail arrived via First Air. Strange thing this food mail, you place your order online and within the week you receive a phone call from the airport stating that your order arrived. We placed our order through Food Fare in Yellowknife on Monday and yesterday we received it. There are other stores that you can pick from and they limit what you can order, for example you can only order nutritious perishable foods like dairy products, meat, fish and poultry, fresh produce, eggs but can not order any prepared foods or fresh or frozen products which are battered or breaded. They do not want us to get 'addicted' to junk food even though it is available here. You can buy veggies and fruit here but it is usually not fresh. It was like Christmas when we brought the boxes in and opened them, we were all excited including the dogs. They pack everything really well and everything was fresh. Like the old saying goes 'you don't know what you got until it's gone.' This afternoon I think I will have a grapefruit for a snack.

Yesterday was a grand day here in Cambridge Bay, the sun was shining all day and the skies were blue. I took Craig to work after lunch so that I could again drive around and take pictures. I spent a couple of hours in and outside of the truck with Blitz. We went for a walk just outside of town and he had fun pointing at all of the ravens. I drove to where I seen the family of foxes and there was only one there, I am assuming the rest were either hunting or resting in their den. There is no hunting within 1km from human habitation and these foxes are within that range. Drove down to Fresh Water Creek to see if it was frozen, there is still a small open area, still can't get over how clear the waters are here. I did see a pack of dogs along the shore of the creek, about 10 of them basking in the sunshine. I picked up Craig just before 5pm and seen an absolutely beautiful sunset from the site, my first one that I had seen here. Did notice yesterday that when the sun is shining here in the winter you need to wear your sunglasses, the brightness of the sun is crazy.

Our trip back south is booked except for the dogs, we need to inform the airlines that we are travelling with our dogs. We fly into Yellowknife on November 9th, pick up the Edge and spend the night. From there we will make our way down to Edmonton stopping at High Level. We are wanting to be in Carman before the 13th as it is my mom's birthday and would like to spend the weekend with her. From there hopefully visit friends and then head to Craig's mom & dad's. We will be in Manitoba for about 3 weeks, our flight back home leaves Edmonton on the 30th so we will need to be there at that time.

The pictures today are a bit of a mash - scenes by the waters, pack of dogs by Fresh Water Creek, our local radio station, the satellites from the North Warning System Site, the sunset.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

I took Craig to work yesterday afternoon as I wanted the truck to drive around and take pictures. Alot of the residents of Cambridge Bay are heading out into the tundra to hunt caribou. This is one of their main meat sources and they hunt at this time as the caribou are moving to the mainland. Rosie, one of the bank's employees and an Inuit lady informed me yesterday that the caribou move to the mainland when the ice forms and head back here around May to calf. This migration is very interesting to me. I am not offended or sickened by the way they harvest the caribou or musk ox for that matter as I grew up with a father that was a hunter/trapper. I understand that they do this as a necessity, to feed their families.

It was a great day as the sun came out in the afternoon and it made for some great pictures by the ice. Hard to tell when the sun rises and sets these days as it is not showing it's face too much. Did notice that by 5pm it is getting dark.

After coming home from taking pictures there was a message on the machine from Craig stating that he sees a herd of musk oxen close to the water lake (lake where we get our water from). So on goes the coat and boots again and off I go. I do see the herd but they are a far distance away so I could not get a picture of them. I decided to head to the dump to see if I could get a better view and much to my surprise I came across a family of 9 Arctic foxes. Needless to say the herd was not on my mind after this. They were very curious of me and came about 15 feet from me. One was very funny as he barked at my every move. 5pm was coming soon and I needed to pick up Craig so I headed to the site to pick him up and then proceeded back to the foxes. They are smaller than our red foxes back home; probably a little less than Molly.

I understand that some people may be offended by some of tonight's pictures but I want to show you the true Arctic way of life and hunting is part of that. They have been doing this for generations, way before we came into the picture.

Some pictures contain scenes of Arctic life - viewer discretion is advised.